Why did Rod Serling originally write “The Twilight Zone” and “Night Gallery”?
He got tired of having sponsors interfere with his more realistic scripts, so he decided to use scifi/fantasy as a way of getting around them (largely because then they wouldn’t know what the heck he was talking about). There’s a very funny (unintentionally so) interview where Mike Wallace asks Serling if he’s now given up “serious” writing to devote himself to more frivolous concerns (like flying saucers and stuff I suppose). Yeah, frivolous stuff like “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” and “The Shelter”…hm.
